Dobson Daily

We’re desperately trying to stay awake until 9:00 p.m. If we can force ourselves to stay up, we’ll adjust to the time so much quicker. It’s been 36 hours since we left our home and almost 48 hours since we’ve seen a bed. We arrived in Anhui at about noon. We walked several miles, exploring the city. Hefei has many trees and has so much building going on. It’s not a tourist city, and judging by the continual stares, they don’t see many foreigners. Nicole had men staring at her all day, and calling out “Hello” as we walked by.

This afternoon we took a bus to a wonderful supermarket. The bus ride was an adventure in and of itself with near misses and lurching while we’re standing, packed in like sardines trying to hold on. The supermarket was clean and modern, with all sorts of fun and interesting products. Everyone had to buy something new to try. Derek has a passion for strange flavors of potato chips. When we travel he always likes to try new flavors. Today he bought Sweet Cucumber and Beef & Curry chips. Now Derek is not too picky with chips, he rarely meets a chip he doesn’t like, but neither flavor was even palatable. We also tried “apple milk” & apple gum. The apple milk tasted like a green apple flavored yogurt drink, and was quite yummy. The apple gum, not so great. We took a few pictures in the supermarket. We thought you’d enjoy Nicole eye to eye with roast duck head. Chicken feet are something Derek and I have both eaten while living in Hong Kong, but still don’t care much for. Can’t wait to try the fresh Laijih (the round red fruit) and mango. I've had frog legs, they taste like chicken, but it's still odd to think you go to the supermarket and come home with a bag of live frogs for dinner.

Looking forward to sleeping in a bed. Tomorrow we get to deliver 5 cases of cleft bottles to the Anhui cleft healing home. Three other cases will go on to an organization in Xian. Our friends the Hafens, took another four cases to an organization in Beijing. We’re excited to see this special home tomorrow. I’m not feeling very coherent so I better go. I keep dozing off even as I’m typing.